Exam boards failing

[Mr Shrike]

I had something along these lines back in January on the Edexcel 20th Century History A-level course.

The question was something like, "Explain why the Socialist government in Spain was so popular in the years after 1975." Or words to that effect.

NOW! The syllabus we were taught (Edexcel's own syllabus) ends in late 1975 with Franco's death... so yeah. Not a vast amount we could talk about for 40-odd marks.

 

[Xelt]

I still don't see why this would cause a problem for the students. A major part of exam technique is moving on when a question seems unanswerable (whether from a lack of knowledge or a mistake in the question).

This makes it impossible to get 100%, which, could have pushed someone into the next grade boundry, making up for the previous exam if they did badly in that.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

When I was at school ours was the first year to implement the "Learning For Life" GCSE, for anyone not doing engligh Lit, but no one organising the exam seemed to really know what to teach on it. They came out of the final exam, laughing about one question, which took up a full page with a complex table about different footballers, the leagues and teams they played in, and their wages. There was a single, one mark question for all of this: "What sport do the people in the table play?" Fantastic.

 

[Puzzlenaut]

I think we should cancel all exams ever. It is the only possible solution.

 

[Lukeje]

I still don't see why this would cause a problem for the students. A major part of exam technique is moving on when a question seems unanswerable (whether from a lack of knowledge or a mistake in the question).

This makes it impossible to get 100%, which, could have pushed someone into the next grade boundry, making up for the previous exam if they did badly in that.

No. These exam papers are always rescaled to reflect a Gaussian distribution of marks about a certain `average' grade.

 

[Spitfirex11]

Dang, I took this exam. Thanks for pointing that out. I thought the question was a bit more difficult than it should have been... glad I didn't waste my time on it.
Thanks again.

 

[Anaril]

Unfortunately I'd say it's just a part of exams, not really acceptable, but there's only so much people can do to try and avoid mistakes and they will happen sometimes.

My university regularly has minor screw-ups in exams and marking, including the occasional impossible question. At the end of the day I don't think exams are a good measure of how well you're doing, seems like it's a lot more exam technique and luck - or as someone in my class put it "850+ hours of lectures, 650+ hours of labs, 200+ supervisions, 1x6month Masters project and a fair few hours in the library: now only 3 exams (in 3 days)"

 

[Xelt]

Alas, theres another one thats happened.
Different exam board this time too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13697116

The multiple-choice biology question, set by Edexcel, offered a selection of wrong answers but not the correct one.